Ohio History Journal

Ohio Quakers

and the

Mississippi

Freedmen --

"A Field to Labor"

by Thomas H. Smith

During the American Civil War the Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Society

of Friends (Orthodox) was one of several religious sects that found use of

warfare to maintain national unity repugnant. The Friends, however, were

not callous to the many sacrifices their neighbors had made, and they

did not remain idle during time of national crisis. Instead of responding

to the nation's martial needs, this small group applied its energy and

financial resources to the education and rehabilitation of free black Ameri-

cans. Their objectives were to prepare the former slaves for freedom and, at

the same time, to make them useful and independent citizens within white

society. It was in the area of Freedmen education and welfare that the

Ohio Yearly Meeting found "a field . . . opened in which we are loudly

called to labor."1

That the Ohio Friends were interested in the condition of the American

Negro during and after the war was only natural since they had been

long identified with those forces in the North that were dedicated to the

abolition of slavery. For example, Benjamin Lundy, as early as 1815, had

organized Ohio's Union Humane Society in St. Clairsville, and two years

later Charles Osborn founded the antislavery newspaper, The Philanthro-

pist, at Mt. Pleasant. Many Ohio Quakers had been active in assisting fugi-

tive slaves on their trek across the state to freedom in Canada. On several

occasions between 1825 and the outbreak of the war in 1861, Quakers

had received small groups of manumitted slaves from the South and had

provided for their settlement near their own communities.2For these

NOTES ON PAGE 221

160 OHIO HISTORY

persons and others already living in Ohio, the Friends assisted in the

management of farms, provided for educational and religious instruction,

distributed Bibles, furnished meeting houses, and provided for the Negroes'

general well being. In fact, by 1859, the Ohio Yearly Meeting was so

involved with the Negro that it created a committee on the Concerns

of the People of Color and made it part of its permanent organization.

Thus, by the eve of the Civil War the Ohio Quakers had clearly committed

themselves to the welfare of Freedmen, and although reports about these

Negroes were not always encouraging, the Quakers observed that the

former slaves were "as susceptible to improvement as any other class."3

Until 1863 efforts of Ohio Quakers on behalf of the Freedmen had been

confined within the state, but after the announcement of the Emancipa-

tion Proclamation, the Ohio Yearly Meeting addressed itself to conditions

of Freedmen outside the state. This outpouring of concern for the welfare

of the black "refugees" in the South was not unique to tile Ohio Quakers,

but was part of a general movement of the various Quaker yearly meetings

throughout the North, Mindful of their refusal to aid the military, the

Quakers were willing to assist their country during a period of national

strife by means consistent with their beliefs.

Between 1863 and 1865 there was an almost frantic effort on the part

of Ohio ers to relieve the physical needs of the southern Negro. In

1863 several of the quarterly meetings within the Ohio Yearly Meeting

contributed about $6000 in addition to new and used clothing "for the

benefit of tile refugees from slavery"⁴ to the Western Freedmen's Aid Com-

mission founded by the Western Yearly Meeting that same year. This

commission was one of several such agencies formed by northern Quakers

to aid suffering Freedmen in the South. The following year the Ohioans

raised $6709.42 for tile relief of Negroes and appointed a special committee

to coordinate its own efforts with those of the Indiana, and Western and

Iowa yearly meetings.⁵During 1864 and 1865 the Ohio special committee

spent much of its time collecting money for direct relief work. It also

recommended to tile Yearly Meeting that $10,000 should be raised through

voluntary subscriptions to aid "the sufferings of these perishing people" and

suggested that twenty or more teachers should be sent South to educate

the former slaves.⁶ In order to raise this rather large sum of money, the

committee for the relief of Freedmen sent circulars to each quarterly

and monthly meeting "encouraging promptness and liberality in contribut-

ing to this benevolent cause."7The argument was that,

The long oppressed and suffering millions of tile South are loudly

calling on the friends of humanity for help; . . . and upon the action

of the friends of justice and humanity at this momentous period,

depends much of good or evil, not only to this class, but to our country

and to the world. Then let us open widely our hearts and purses, in

this dark hour of their trial; that in the great day of final accounts, the

language may not be applied to us, "Inasmuch as ye did not to one

of the least of these, ye did it not to me."8

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 161

Apparently these appeals to the Quakers were successful because most

of the $10,000 was collected. This generous giving, however, marked the

high point for the Ohioan's direct relief program. This type of relief

was understood to be a temporary measure, and other more permanent

solutions were sought to improve the lot of the southern blacks in the

post-Civil War years. The members were told,

We wish to say for the encouragement to those who contributed

to this benevolent cause, that, we believe the experiment has fully

demonstrated that the quickest and shortest way to relieve ourselves

of the burden of contributing to the relief of this class, and the only

way to elevate them above the depressing effects of the deeprooted

prejudice with which they are surrounded, and enable them to enjoy

the full blessings of freedom is, after relieving their pressing physical

wants, to educate.⁹

The Ohio Quakers were no doubt influenced in their decision to turn

their energies toward the education of the Negro during the winter of

1864-65 by the visit of their agent Elder John Butler to various refugee

camps and Freedmen schools along the Mississippi River. These facilities

had been established by the Indiana Yearly Meeting under the leadership

of Levi Coffin. Since the Quakers believed that the Federal Government

also had a definite responsibility for caring for southern Freedmen, Butler

visited Washington to solicit Federal aid. President Lincoln granted the

Ohioan an interview and expressed "his thankfulness for what Friends

had done and were doing for the relief of colored Freedmen."¹⁰ Butler

was successful in securing government support for transportation for his

southern tour.

In November 1864, Butler and Elkanah Beard, the agent for the Indiana

Yearly Meeting, together examined the conditions and needs of Freedmen

in Mississippi. Beard, who was already familiar with the situation in the

state suggested the Ohio Yearly Meeting should establish a Freedmen's

school on Paw Paw Island, located near Vicksburg, where there were ap-

proximately 550 destitute Negroes. Perhaps because of the lateness of the

year or the unsettled political condition in the state, the Ohio Quakers

were not interested in Mississippi at that time but, instead, hired two

teachers to work in an Indiana Quaker Freedmen's school in Nashville,

Tennessee.11

When Butler returned to Ohio on December 5, 1864, he was enthusiastic

about the Indiana Quakers' educational activity among the southern blacks

and heartened by the progress of the Negroes themselves. He reported to

the Ohio Yearly Meeting that the Negroes' "desire to learn to read and

write is so great, and their whole mind is so absorbed in it, that their

improvement in some instances has very been [sic] remarkable."¹²Butler

then suggested that "the moral and intellectual mental culture and instruc-

tion in the general concerns of life, would confer a more lasting benefit

upon these people, than merely relieving their physical wants."13 Hence,

by the end of 1865, the Ohio Quakers were convinced by both the apparent

162 OHIO HISTORY

success of the Indiana Yearly Meeting's educational work in Tennessee

and Butler's report that they too should become active in Freedmen educa-

tion, and they began looking for a suitable location for a school.

Following their annual meeting in September 1865, the Ohioans sent

their agent William Daniels to Tennessee where Indiana Quakers already

had an interest. There, Daniels was encouraged to begin work by the

Freedmen's Bureau which had been established by the Federal Government

in March to care for former slaves. However, due to such factors as com-

petition from other religious sects, a widely scattered Negro population,

and hostilities of the whites toward any kind of education for their former

slaves, Ohio's effort to found a Freedmen's school in Tennessee was can-

celled. Still eager to be of service, however, and with promise of aid from

the Freedmen's Bureau, the Ohio Quakers hurried to Jackson, Mississippi,

in October when they heard of the need for a school there. Reportedly,

there was "a good field for Teachers and a disposition on the part of the

Freedmen to support the same themselves."¹⁴

The Friends at first encountered resistance to their schools in Jackson

from the local white population.15 It seems that, among other things,

the southerners objected to the rather large number of women included

in the group of immigrant teachers and all sorts of fanciful stories were

circulated about Yankee schoolmarms. As a matter of fact, of the five

Ohioans who opened the school in Jackson, four were females. Just before

their arrival, a public meeting was held to discuss the problem of female

teachers working with Negroes. It was reported to the Freedmen's Bureau

that one speaker stated, "of 70 female teachers sent to Gen'l [Rufus]

Saxton's Dept., over 60 had illegitimate colored children."¹⁶ It appears

that these accounts were mostly fabrications, but, due to the suspicious

character of the local white population, the Ohio teachers could not find

adequate housing, and the ladies were forced to live together in one

room.

Even though the Friends encountered opposition, some progress in their

work was reported. While the Quakers waited for three small school build-

ings to be constructed on public land provided by the Freedmen's Bureau,

the teachers conducted classes in a nearby Negro church because no other

space was made available to them. Elizabeth Bond, a teacher sent to assist

the Ohioans from the Indiana Yearly Meeting, complained in a letter

that "nothing would induce them [the southern whites] to give a room

which would be used for the Freedmen in any way; so three of us are

teaching in the same room."¹⁷Miss Bond's letter indicated to the editor

of the Freedmen's Record that the white people were determined "the

negro shall not be educated to work for himself, but must at all events

be kept a degraded being, ready when the time comes to be again converted

into a chattel. It is very evident," the editor continued, "that they have

no idea of giving up slavery there, and are only waiting for the Freedmen's

Bureau to be withdrawn, to openly ensalve the negro population." But

Miss Bond reported that through the efforts of the Quakers "the colored

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 163

people have raised money and bought lumber to put up school houses"

for themselves.¹⁸Also, John H. Douglas, an agent for the Indiana Quakers

who toured Mississippi during the latter part of 1865, stated that the

Ohio Quakers were "persevering through obloquy and insult, but the

schools are in a flourishing condition."¹⁹

That the southern Negro would be educated eventually was one of the

consequences of the war; yet immediately following the conflict, most

southern state legislatures had made no provision for the education for

their former slaves, and this responsibility thus fell upon northern philan-

thropy and the Negroes themselves. On October 24, 1864, the Vicksburg

Herald explained to all northern teachers in the state, whether they were

Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, or Quakers, the

former Confederate state was much too poor to offer any aid.

It is well to speak plain--in the present impoverished condition of

the country, the education of their own children will doubtless draw

heavily on the resources of the citizens. If any radical was ever black

enough in his views, to suppose the people of Mississippi would endow

"negro schools," for their ilk to teach the rising ebo-skin hatred of

his former master, but best friend; then such chaps had better take

to marching on with John Brown's soul--they will hardly reach the

object of their desires short of the locality where John is kicking and

wailing. The State has not opened them, nor has she the slightest idea

of doing anything of the kind. While the adult blacks are leading

their present idle and unprofitable life, shirking all regular employ-

ment, foraging on the outskirts of our towns and cities, paying no taxes,

refusing to labor, in many instances, for fair wages, to expect that the

whites should educate their children is very cool and refreshing. The

sooner the free negro is taught that he is to support himself and his

family, precisely as the white man does, the better it will be for him

and his descendants. The white man will not support him in idleness,

nor tax themselves for his benefit.²⁰

Although it is certain that the white citizens of Jackson distrusted what

they considered the radicalism of northern teachers, the Friends were not

radical either in their approach or objectives. The Quakers were con-

cerned with the conditions of the southern Negroes to be sure, but theirs

was a Christian, not a political concern. Because they were fellow human

beings, the Friends wanted to see the lot of the Negroes improved, and

they believed that education would help obtain this objective. Their ap-

proach was simplistic and closely associated with their beliefs. Primarily,

education of the Freedmen was not to be a burden on white society.

Whether in Ohio or in the South, former slaves were encouraged to assume

the financial responsibility for their education and livelihood. Second, the

curriculum established was one that would free the Negroes from reliance

upon their former masters. Elementary subjects along with some simple

manual skills were taught in order to make the Freedmen self-sufficient

and thrifty. Third, Ohio Friends employed the Lancastrian or monotorial

system which allowed more capable, older black students to instruct younger

164 OHIO HISTORY

ones. This method permitted Quakers to train Negro teachers quickly

and economically. Eventually, it was hoped, enough Negro teachers would

be available for the former slaves to assume the main responsibility of

educating their own people. Fourth, in order to ensure the Freedmen the

opportunity to learn, Quakers encouraged the teaching of their own

"guarded religious, and literary education." This meant that they wanted

to shield the student from harmful influences of wrong teaching and

textbooks while providing him with an environment in which he could

learn. Consequently, it was the opinion of the Ohio Yearly Meeting that

the southern black could best be helped toward useful citizenship through

"counsel and encouragement . . . and assistance in obtaining an educa-

tion," but that they must "by their own efforts, aid and elevate them-

selves, . . . [rather than depend upon] direct pecuniary relief; however

desirable this may be at times."21

The school that was founded by the Ohio Quakers in Jackson had both

a "School of Literary Instruction" and an "Industrial School." Tile former

was concerned with teaching such subjects as the alphabet, reading, geog-

raphy, arithmetic, and writing. The report to the Educational Division

of the Freedmen's Bureau for November 1865 indicated that the literary

school had 134 students, of which forty were pure African and the re-

mainder were of mixed blood. Also, of the total, four were under six years

of age, eighty-eight between six and sixteen, and forty-two over sixteen.²²

The Negroes seemed responsive to education,23 and, according to a report

sent to the 1866 Ohio Yearly Meeting, "those who attend school seem

willing so far as able, to defray expenses";24 that year the school collected

$629 for tuition and books from the Freedmen.²⁵

The industrial school taught women the art of garment making, and

the sale of these clothing items helped defray school expenses and provided

a small wage for the students. The purpose of the wage was to give the

Negro practice in management of money as well as to show whites that

former slaves could become financially responsible. During 1866 the school

was open four months and enrolled an average of forty-eight women daily.

These women worked approximately six hours each day during the period

making 1267 garments and other articles.²⁶The industrial school, how-

ever, was short-lived. Apparently the physical needs of the southern Freed-

men had lessened somewhat by 1867 because that year, after only thirty-

six days of operation, it was closed. At about the same time, the Joint

Board of Relief, which had been formed by the Ohio, Indiana, and

Western and Iowa yearly meetings in 1864, was dissolved because "the

circumstances [for its continuance were] no longer existing."27 Thus, after

1867, the Ohio Friends concentrated more of their energies on the

academic needs of Freedmen.

The Quakers labored hard among the Freedmen in Jackson, and their

approach to the education of Negroes soon calmed many fears the southern

white community had had about their coming. Even though the Ohioans

had suffered some harrassment from the white population, the Quakers

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 165

166 OHIO HISTORY

soon reported that "the citizens . . . seem to be more kindly disposed,"

than they were before. "The meekness, patience and forbearance of the

teachers seems to have had a favorable effect." The report continued, "and

as citizens of Jackson remarked, the instruction given to the Freedmen,

instead of making them saucy and indolent, has had a beneficial effect

upon them, having a tendency to make them kind and obedient."²⁸Thomas

Smith, ex-chaplain of the Fifty-Third United States Colored Troops and

an official of the Freedmen's Bureau, expressed his thanks to the Ohio

Yearly Meeting in the spring of 1866 for its work "in forming the intel-

lectual, moral and religious character of the Freedmen." Smith, who point-

ed out that the Friends had pioneered Negro education in Jackson, also

said the Ohio teachers were "peaceable, unobtrusive and indefatigable"

and that the school had "accomplished an invaluable amount of good."²⁹

Yet, the Quakers realized more than did government officials the obstacles

that lay ahead for the improvement of the general conditions of the

southern Negroes. They confessed that while their work was one of

"Christian love and self-sacrifice," its success was "not the work of a day,

or a year, but many years."³0

During the summer of 1866 the Quakers had to remove their school

buildings from the public lands upon which the Freedmen's Bureau had

helped them to settle, but the Ohio Yearly Meeting was able to purchase

six town lots for their school.³1 To fulfill the philosophy that the Freedmen

should support their own education, a contract was drawn up between

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 167

the Quakers and the Negroes which stated that when the Freedmen paid

for the lots and houses and showed "sufficient ability to conduct their

own schools, they are to own and have possession of the buildings and the

lots on which they stand."³²The Quakers were still optimistic about their

work with the Freedmen and reported that educational progress of the

Negroes in Jackson was equal to that of white students in the North

and that they were "generally inclined to try to help themselves."³³

Even though the Quakers were encouraged by the progress of their

school and the receipts remained adequate, by 1869 extraneous forces were

causing them to re-evaluate their commitment. In 1868 the Mississippi

"Black and Tan" constitutional convention, in which former slave-holders

168 OHIO HISTORY

were a minority, accepted the concept of public education. Furthermore,

many of the conservative elements in the state accepted Negro education

as one of the consequences of the war. For instance, the Jackson Daily

Clarion on several occasions called for some form of Negro education

as long as it was controlled and conducted by southern whites.³⁴Thus,

facing incipient state competition and knowing that black teachers would

be needed in the newly created black schools, the Quakers requested the

Freedmen's Bureau to establish a normal or teachers' training school in

Jackson using the Friends' facilities. In May 1868, Henry R. Pease, Super-

intendent of Education in Mississippi for the Freedmen's Bureau, wrote

to Oliver 0. Howard, director of the Bureau, in support of the idea of

a centralized normal school. Pease explained that the Ohio Yearly Meet-

ing was anxious for the government to take over its school.35 By September,

however, Pease reversed his opinion and said the state governments should

provide for the education of Negroes.36 Although neither the state nor

the Freedmen's Bureau relieved the Ohio Quakers of their teaching burden,

tile Bureau did donate $482 in building materials and $18 in cash to the

school.37

In addition to political problems, either because of the establishment

of a state-wide public education system which provided for Negro educa-

tion as of July 1870 or because some Quakers lost interest, each year after

1869 it was harder for the Ohio Yearly Meeting to raise money to maintain

the school and harder still to get a teaching staff for its operation. In

1871, however, state assistance did come from Mississippi after the aid

received from the Freedmen's Bureau was withdrawn. Because there were

not enough teachers to fill the vacancies in the state's Negro schools,

the Hinds County Superintendent of schools paid the tuition of the black

students and the salaries of the teachers in the Quaker school, while the

"regulation and government of the schools" remained in the hands of the

Quakers.38 This was only a temporary arrangement, and the next year

the Ohioans lacked funds to open their school. The Committee on Freed-

men for the Ohio Yearly Meeting thought, however, that "the work

should not be abandoned at present, and have made arrangements for

sustaining three teachers there the coming autumn and winter."39

Their work was not abandoned, and the Quakers opened the school

again in 1873. This year the Ohioans faced opposition from both the

state school authorities and the local white population. The state school

system, which had been created by a Republican-dominated legislature,

was now under the control of Thomas W. Cardoza, a Negro. To combat

the criticisms and unrest against the new system, Cardoza turned to stronger

centralized control and was not sympathetic with the Quaker's independent

efforts to give the blacks some form of elementary education. The white

citizens of Jackson, too, were critical of the Freedmen's school. Although

by 1873 the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and other similar groups

against Negro schools in Mississippi had subsided, the Quakers reported

to the Ohio Yearly Meeting that they had faced "considerable opposition

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 169

from the authorities, and, to a considerable extent, from the public senti-

ment of the white people of Jackson, it being asserted that our schools were

an injury to the public schools, the children leaving the latter to attend

the former."⁴⁰ Evidently the Yearly Meeting itself was divided over the

future of the Jackson endeavor. Even though the executive committee on

Freedmen recommended that the school property in Jackson be sold and

the proceeds be applied "to the education of the Freedmen at some other

point,"⁴1 other Quakers, at the same time, applied to the George Peabody

Fund, which was dedicated to the growth and development of education

in the South, for financial aid.^{42 The} Peabody Fund, however, did not

assist the Quakers. Thus, after almost a decade of work with the southern

Freedmen, the Ohio Yearly Meeting was faced with failing financial support

170 OHIO HISTORY

for the school and increasing local white opposition. The future, indeed,

was not bright--the balance of funds on hand at the end of 1873 being

only $329.22, down from an 1866-67 budget of $4905.17.43

The Quakers were able in some manner to keep the school open for

two more drastically shortened terms through 1874-75. As circumstances

grew worse, the Committee for the Concerns of the People of Color in

its final report to the Ohio Yearly Meeting explained that "in view of

the provisions made by the State of Mississippi for the education of the

colored children, and the difficulty of securing the funds necessary for

defraying the expenses of our school in Jackson the Committee are united

in judgment that it is not best to attempt to maintain a school there

the approaching winter."⁴⁴The school never did open again under Quaker

jurisdiction, and in 1879 the disposition of the property in Jackson, which

by that time was "considerably out of repair," was committed to a small

committee headed by John Butler. Butler's committee was to "sell, donate

or retain the property, as may best accord with their judgment."⁴5 It is

not clear what final disposition this committee made of the Jackson

property since nothing was stated on the subject in subsequent Yearly

Meeting reports. In any event, after nearly ten years of work with the

Freedmen of Mississippi and expenditure by 1875 of approximately

$27,557.60, the Ohio Quakers abandoned their work in Jackson.⁴⁶

Even though the Quakers' efforts with the Freedmen were tapering

off, the Ohioans did not remain idle. Coincidental with the later years

of the Freedmen's project, a great outpouring of Quaker energy was directed

toward the cause of international peace, national temperance, the advance-

ment of the Kickapoo and Pottawatomie Indian tribes in Kansas, and to-

ward other home missionary activities. The Ohio Yearly Meeting's work in

belalf of the Peace Association of Friends in America, formed in 1867,

occupied the interests of Quakers for nearly twenty years following the

Civil War. Their major emphasis was to argue against the use of warfare

between Christian nations because the resort to force to settle international

disputes was thought to be contrary to the word of God. Ohioans were

asked to contribute $1000 to the national association's first annual budget.⁴7

In 1869, 618,337 pages of printed matter concerning peace were distributed

from the association's printing office in New Vienna, Ohio.48 Beginning in

1871 Ohio Quakers also tried to convince their neighbors of the righteous-

ness of their own views on temperance and circulated 80,000 pages of tem-

perance tracts, directed 95 temperance meetings, established 22 juvenile

temperance societies in schools, and conducted prayer meetings in 420 sa-

loons.⁴⁹Three years later the Quakers intensified their temperance activity

and visited 526 families, saloons, and individuals to convince those present

that the use of alcohol was ungodly. They also disseminated 248,400 pages

of temperance literature.50 Interest in the movement by the Ohio Yearly

Meeting continued throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century.

Thus, by the last quarter of the nineteenth century the Ohio Quakers

had put aside their concern for the southern blacks and were looking

QUAKERS AND FREEDMEN 171

toward other fields in which to perform their good works. As a pacifist

group the Quakers did not turn their backs on their country during its

time of peril but addressed themselves to problems that could be dealt

with in non-violent ways. Their labor with the Freedmen in Jackson after

the war was a natural continuation of their concern for the Negro which

they had witnessed long before the sectional conflict. As a group, their

goals for the former slaves both in Ohio and Mississippi were conservative.

They rarely spoke of social or civil equality for the blacks but, consistent

with the consensus of northern educators at that time and later popularized

by Booker T. Washington, the Quakers wanted to make the Negroes

economically independent of white society through academic and vocational

education. As the Friends themselves explained:

Consistent members of our Society could not conscientiously bear

"carnal weapons" even for the suppression of the Great Rebellion.

They dared not to imbrue their hands in human blood. But let it

never be said that, in the contest with the Slave Power, and in the need-

ful care of the suffering millions, who were suddenly thrown as a

burden upon the government in the hour of victory, they have not

nobly done their part.⁵¹

THE AUTHOR: Thomas H. Smith is

an assistant professor of history at Ohio

University.